Consumer Protection

With Commissioner for Consumer Protection Penny Lipscombe

Gift cards are big money in Australia, both for their convenience and flexibility. Unfortunately an estimated $70 million is lost each year due to uncertainty about expiry dates.

Consumer Protection Western Australia received 116 gift card related complaints in the last year (September 2018–September 2019) with 26% of complaints about inability to redeem a gift card and 14% of complaints regarding issues with the expiry date.

Promoters of a fraudulent tax scheme are targeting residents in Kimberley communities with the promise of a large tax return, prompting a warning by Consumer Protection and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Reports from Derby, Fitzroy Crossing and surrounding areas have revealed that some taxpayers have been approached by promoters offering to help submit their tax returns with a guarantee of a substantial payment. In some cases, the promoters have offered to pay to obtain the taxpayers’ myGov login details.

Consumer Protection has been unable to secure refunds for more than 200 complainants who have paid over $200,000 between them for cheap flights or holiday deals from a Facebook travel agency. Affected consumers either could not get plane tickets for their desired dates or were asked to pay extra money and some flew to their destination but found they were not booked on return flights as expected.

With Commissioner for Consumer Protection Lanie Chopping

Are you looking to buy white goods, electrical items or a new car in the near future? Chances are you’ll be offered an extended warranty by the salesperson but you need to think twice before saying “yes” because you could be wasting your money.

Concert-goers are being warned to avoid paying for tickets via PayPal using the ‘friends and family’ function, as these transactions are not covered by the financial service’s buyer protection policy.

The warning comes as Consumer Protection has received numerous complaints from Western Australians unable to retrieve their money after using this function to transfer funds to scammers posing as genuine ticket sellers on classified sites.

Legislation is currently before the WA Parliament that aims to bring the new Costco fuel outlet at Perth Airport under the FuelWatch umbrella.

Currently, the Petroleum Products Pricing Act 1983 (WA) does not cover fuel sales when there is an existing agreement between the customer and the fuel retailer, including member-based schemes such as Costco.

When passed by Parliament, the new laws will mean Costco will not be able to claim this general exemption from FuelWatch and will be required to report its pricing.

Wild weather across Western Australia has prompted Consumer Protection to issue advice to landlords and tenants about their rights and responsibilities when a rental property is damaged.

Landlords and tenants are urged to make contact early and maintain open communication in the aftermath of extreme weather events such as storms, cyclones and flooding.

Commissioner for Consumer Protection Lanie Chopping said landlords and property managers were legally responsible for ensuring the rental property was fit and safe to live in.

With Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Lanie Chopping  

Perth’s rental prices have flat-lined for almost three years, but there are strong indications the market could be resuscitated in 2020.

According to REIWA, the number of rental listings fell nine per cent in the last three months of 2019 – helping to nudge down the vacancy rate to 2.4 per cent and resulting in increased competition among tenants to secure a property.

UPDATE 20/04/2021: After Consumer Protection reported on the outcome of this case on 27 February 2020, Christina Cramphorn successfully applied for the judgement to be set aside on the basis that she was not present when the case was heard by the Rockingham Magistrates Court. A re-trial was held on 25 March 2021 and Ms Cramphorn again failed to attend and Magistrate Andretich accepted that she had failed to respond to communications from Consumer Protection.

Failing to lodge bonds on time and inaccurate record-keeping has resulted in a Karratha real estate agent being ordered to pay $24,069 in fines and costs by the Perth Magistrates Court.

Peard Real Estate Karratha collected bonds from six tenants in the Karratha region between September 2017 and January 2018, but failed to lodge them within 14 days as required by the Residential Tenancies Act. The agent was also convicted of five charges of inaccurate trust records relating to the dates of when the bonds were lodged.